Reading books from school

[Podmog]

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I know that every school does things differently but at our school, the children have one book from their reading group (a reading scheme) and they are free to choose any book (preferably from their allocated colour code) whenever they please - we, as parents, have a reading record to complete with comments on their reading and any words they found difficult etc. If yours do anything similar I would enter suitable words into that - basically, stating exactly what you have said here - that your child is bored, and that the type of book she is being issued with do not suit her reading ability. I would send her into school with books that do suit her reading ability for her to look at whilst at school. If this continues and the teacher continues to ignore your messages - then I would be tempted to request a meeting between her current teacher, her previous teacher and either the head of KS1 or the Head of the school. If your school do not have the comment books - I would be tempted to start one off - at least then you have proof that you have raised this issue numerous times and that the teacher continues to give her unsuitable reading material.

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My son started Reception class a few weeks before the end of term last term, and is now in Year 1. He is a fluent reader (reading Enid Blyton style books at home) but the school kept trying to send him home with those ghastly stilted reading scheme books. I actually tackled it by cornering his teacher after school one day, and saying that I felt the books were too easy for him, and that I would send him in with some books from home so she could see the sort of thing he is accustomed to reading. I then sent in three of the books he read during the holidays (that was on Friday), one of which he read to the teacher, and happily today they have sent home a couple of books that seemt to be more his level. So you could try that - although i do have a suspicion that I ended up choosing a particularly responsinve school by pure chance!

Podmog - ds1 is a fantastic reader, he's just gone into yr2. Like your dd1 he was an early reader, and a good reader, and like your dd1 he was given books in yr1 which were well below his 'standard'. We were delighted with his teacher in many respects, and he explained he thought it important for ds1 to 'go through the scheme', and also that he was already two stages ahead of any other child in the class, so.. Anyway we decided to stick with his advice, and actually there were many benefits:

DS1 didn't refuse to read the books, and actually enjoyed many of them. They only took 5 mins to read, so that left us loads of time to read the stuff he really wanted at home. But as well you can use these books to talk about different ways/styles of writing. You can break down the plot, to study different ways of telling a story. It's great, and you couldn't do it with a longer book. (Look at this for more ideas about story-writing and plot development. By the way your dd1 may well enjoy these books now or very shortly.) You can also ask all the 'what do you think will happen next' stuff, and ask her what the best bits were, how she would develop the characters etc. If she is very bored and very negative about the books, I'm sure her teacher will pick it up. Some of these reading scheme books are pretty good quality nowadays.

Anyway he's now in yr2, he's one of the youngest in his class but a phenomenal reader, and his new teacher has now put him straight on to 'free readers', but these are longer - c.70 pp, so take much longer to read. Some are great, but some are pretty grim. He/we would much rather have the shorter reading-scheme books, and then give him more time to read the 'proper' children's literature he wants at home.

I'm sure if you are positive to her about the books she has, then she will be positive about them too.

Not sure how coherent this is, but hope it helps anyway.

Ask them if the school has other reading scheme books. Dd is an excellent reader (2 years ahead of her actual age) Her school moved her up the scheme faster so that she didn't get bored. However they also got her to read through 4 reading schemes at each level. That way she had the fun of changing her book on a daily basis, it also helped to broaden out her range of familier words, without putting her on books that she was too young to understand even though she could read them IYSWIM. Ask to have a chat with the teacher. Explain that your child is getting switched off, ask if they can have their own book in school, as well as the scheme. Also ask if there is a gifted and talented scheme (there should be) and is your dd a candidate.

Sadly this sort of thing happens all too often. A friend was told that her child couldn't go up a level because none of the children could until they went up a year!

I remember this from school - arriving reading Oscar Wilde and being given Janet and John. Don't know what you can do. I think it definitely meant I mistrusted and disliked school from an early age. Have another word with the teacher. I went to a crappy comp and over and over again found teachers who simply disbelieved I could do stuff - they accused me of not reading books as quickly as I had, or getting other people to write my essays etc etc etc. Very tiresome. I'm certainly no genius either. I do sympathise with you and your dd.

Our situation is similar to kmg - DD has just started Y2 and has already read Harry Potter 1-5 alone, twice, as well as the Hobbit and a couple of the Narnia books. Goodness knows what else.

Her books from school are easy but she enjoys them. Maximum reading time is 20 mins. She is on 'free readers' and the choices she makes are sometimes very easy, sometimes harder.

I'm actually glad that she is still being given a fairly limited choice as I feel in some ways she's moved on too quickly and will miss out a huge chunk of good stories if not careful. As well as recognising that she can 'read' words i.e. recognise them in context but is guessing at how to pronounce them so can't 'read' them properly.

OTOH, none of the teachers has ever criticised the books that they know she reads out of school. I'm not sure how I'd handle that.

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Podmog - what reading scheme do they use, out of interest? Our school uses loads of different schemes, which they have then graded into their own system. It's great because different things appeal - ds1 particularly enjoys the non-fiction books, and hates the poetry books. (He enjoys poetry, just not the sort of poetry you get in these reading schemes!)

RobinW and SueW - your children do sound like ds1. Do you fancy swapping favourite authors/books, maybe on a different thread so as not to hijack this one? DS1's top authors at the moment are Jenny Nimmo, Caroline Lawrence, Michael Morpurgo, Madeleine de L'Engle and of course J K Rowling. Dick King-Smith and Roald Dahl were always favourites, but he's moving on from that now. We recently discovered Gill Murphy - the Worst Witch - they are pretty simple, but went down an absolute storm. We have read some classics too - E Nesbitt, Tolkein, CS Lewis, Richard Adams, Dodie Smith, EB White ... but most of these us reading to him, and him reading the odd chapter to us rather than tackling the whole thing alone.

For the future we're considering Eoin Colfer, Philip Pullman, Lemony Snicket ... anyone else any suggestions?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your ideas if you're interested in this sort of info swapping.

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Had the same experience as kmg1 with my DD6 - just gone up into yr 2. Also, like hmb my dd was given 4 reading schemes per stage. We did, and still do continue to do a lot of reading at home.

I actually think that keeping her on the scheme ( admittedly 2 stages ahead) has developed her as a "reader" - her peception, charactor development etc...

I also read with her most nights - her a page, me a page, or "harder" books - she enjoys these and loves going to bed!! .

I too would be interested in swapping info about books and generally helping with school work. I had a question about maths at the weekend - but was too busy to post!!

robinw have you tried Kumon maths with your dd - it is maths tution whereby you go to the centre and they assess the level your child is at and give them appropriate work - it is a bit repetitive but the aim is to increase their speed and improve the childs mental arithmetic - see website www.kumonmaths.co.uk

I think I'm going to have this problem this year with dd1 (just gone into yr2), but it's a little more difficult for me, as the books she brings home are in Welsh (she goes to a Welsh school, it's not some terrible mistake!). So far this term she's not brought anything home (the school seems to have a "not much homework in the infants" policy, which I think is great), but she tells me that Year 1 and Year 2 have the same books to choose from. When she reads English books, she reads the Enid Blyton type level, but the Welsh ones she brought home last year seemed to be well below that level (bit hard to tell, don't know too much Welsh yet). They don't even get taught English "officially" until next year, so I don't see why her Welsh reading level sholdn't be the same as her English reading level. Am I making any sense? not sure that I am, but I'll carry on anyway!
Anyway, my solution is to make sure she has access to the ones that are more challenging at home (thank goodness the library stock a good selection of Welsh books), and when I've had a chance to have a look at what she's bringing home, I will have a chat with the teacher and see if there's anything a bit more challenging she can have if necessary. Interestingly, they don't seem to have a "scheme" as such, all the books she's brought home have been free choice.

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Bron, (nice to "see" you again, btw) to be honest, I'm a bit lazy on the keeping ahead of them front - Welsh is dh's first language, so I tend to rely on him to translate etc. The school have never suggested any particular books, but as I'm sure you know, there's plenty of classes around - which I'm sure you've got loads of time for with 2 children! (know I don't). I'm sure there's a Welsh language board, or similar, but to start you off, here is a google search I did on "learn to speak Welsh". There seems to be distance learning and software available. In fact, I'm feeling a bit inspired myself - think I'll go and investigate!
Sorry for going off-topic everyone.

Sonnet, we also found that giving dd breadth of reading helped, eather than a simple acceleration up the reading scheme. Otherwise the topics of the books would have become to 'old' for her. It has also helped to give her a better 'core' of familier words, and she now free reads with great enjoyment.

For those looking for first 'read alone' books, we found the Horrid Henry books great fun.

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